ABSTRACT
Tourism, like much else in the social world, is undergoing a dramatic transformation. One way to look at these changes is to argue that they constitute a stage that is continuous with modernity; they are part of advanced modernity. The most obvious problem with such a view is that the new world seems so different that it appears to lack much, if any, immediate connection with its modern ancestor. Hence, a second way of thinking about this change which takes the position that it is both part, and a reflection, of the movement from a modern to a totally new and discontinuous post-modern society. While there is much merit in this mode of thought, one is led to wonder whether the changes are dramatic enough to qualify as an entirely new social form. Furthermore, such a view tends toward the kind of periodization attacked by post-modernists. Worse, it involves the kind of grand narrative that is the bête noire of post-modern social theorists, especially Lyotard.
